Mark Stoops has been around big-time football programs before at Miami, Arizona and Florida State.
He was the defensive coordinator at Arizona and FSU the past nine seasons following three years as a defensive backs coach at Miami. He has shaped up the defenses for the Wildcats and Seminoles, so perhaps taking over the Kentucky defense might not have seemed like such a big challenge. After all, everybody knows Kentucky fans only care about basketball. Right? Wrong.
Stoops got a taste of how much UK football fans also want a winner when 50, 931 of them showed up to check out Stoops’ team at the Blue/White Spring Game this past April, the largest crowd to attend a spring game in program history.
“Thought it was a great night for the program,” said Stoops of the crowd. “Really appreciate the fan support, just an unbelievable atmosphere. It’s remarkable, it really is. I’ve said it a few times, but again, I really thank them for their support and their belief and their passion for this program. It’s tremendous.
“It does nothing but help us, and it also, you know, makes us want to do better. As players and coaches, we feel that passion and energy and we want to deliver. We want to get this done and deliver for this state because we deserve to have a great program.”
Having a great program will not be easy playing in the SEC East alongside established powers Georgia, Florida, South Carolina and now Vanderbilt, a team that won nine games last season and brings a seven-game winning streak into this season.
Kentucky will essentially be starting the Stoops era clean with only 10 returning starters off a team that went 2-10 overall and 0-8 in the conference a year ago. In this case, change can be welcomed and should be embraced by the fans.
Stoops’ background in defense will fall under watch of defensive coordinator D.J. Eliot in Lexington while the offense will be run by Neal Brown. Both men will have their work cut out for them if the Wildcats are going to become a factor in the SEC East race. Of the 10 returning starters, four of them are on offense and five are defensive players, so maybe becoming a factor might have to be a future goal — while just improving over last season might be a more realistic approach. It at starts with the players and how bad they want it.
“I want them more hungry to be honest with you but they are good kids,” said Stoops. “Again, I talked several times throughout spring about how they were feeling their way through things and trying to get a grasp of the offense or defense or special teams and just getting a feel.
“I felt as spring was going on, practice 11, 12, 13 — I started seeing guys step up, little by little and gain more confidence. So that helps. We’re a team that’s just getting a foundation of who we are. So we know we have got a long way to go.
“But they have got the right attitudes and we have a coaching staff that has a great plan and has coached and been around a lot of successful people,” he said.
Stoops himself is one of those coaches.
“When I got to Florida State and Arizona, they were very similar. So I hope we can make the improvement that we did there. Obviously players will help,” he said. “I think just continue to grind, bigger, stronger players we need to recruit, but we need to continue to work with these players and put them in a position to be successful.
“That’s been my motto since I’ve been here. It’s our job to put them in a position to be successful and get them to do things we need them to do.”